Times of Trenton Letters to the Editor - Nov. 14

Michael Mancuso/The TimesStanding in front of the new World War II Memorial on West State Street in Trenton, Mark Dau, left, of Hunterdon County answers 'Enough!' in response to a speaker at a Tax Day Tea Party taxpayer protest in front of the Statehouse in Trenton in a file photo.

Tea Party, pure and simple

Many people have the wrong idea about the Tea Party. It is a nonpartisan, civic association dedicated to restoring the proper, smaller, constitutional role of state and federal governments. These governments should be funded only to the extent necessary to fulfill their constitutional obligations, which would mean lower taxes, a return to state sovereignty, and renewed individual liberties and free markets.

-- Phil Wright,
Hopewell Township

Developmental centers fill an important need

I am concerned about proposed closure of some New Jersey developmental centers for the developmentally disabled. If that happens, developmentally disabled adults will be forced to reside in adult community placement or group homes. I am deeply concerned for our severely and profoundly developmentally disabled adults, who would not fare well residing in a group home, as it would jeopardize their medical and personal safety.

This issue should be viewed with sensitivity and respect. Our developmentally disabled adults who reside in developmental centers are provided proper care and attention by a trained and professional medical staff in a 24-hour medical care setting, something a group home without the proper staff training and supervision could not provide.

Social and vocational opportunities are provided in developmental centers. My disabled relative is a longtime resident of a developmental center. His parents are pleased with the care and support he receives there, as well as the many opportunities to develop socially and vocationally based on his level of disability.

A study by Advocates for New Jersey Developmental Center Residents found that “96 percent of guardians and family members preferred continued intermediate care facilities for persons with mental retardation ... over community services.”

In “Panel offers perspective on job crisis and what voters can do” (Nov. 9), The Times provides a summary of the remarks of the panelists who led a discussion about the current job crisis at an event hosted by the Mid-Jersey MoveOn Council.

The panelists were hardly lightweights: Larry Hamm, president of the People’s Organization for Progress; Princeton University economist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman; and Carol Gay, president of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, were the speakers.

I was struck by the narrow-mindedness and ideological bias of their remarks. It is apparent that none of those quoted made an effort to understand the origins of the current jobs crisis: advances in global productivity and competition sparked by the spread of free market economies around the world.

Had they bothered making such an analysis, they might have recognized that the solutions they advocated — class warfare and heavy-handed government welfare — to solve our current unemployment crisis are counterproductive. One wonders how their reasoning could be so misguided.

-- Nelson Obus,
Princeton

Get more, pay more

What’s fair in this great society? I recently read that the Yankees signed their best pitcher to a five-year deal worth a guaranteed $122 million (“Yankees sign Sabathia to new deal,” Nov. 1). Did anyone else cringe on hearing about that? To put it in perspective, the 2011 budget for the City of Trenton (our state capital) is less than twice that. We should all be so lucky, or talented, or something, right?

But when a few people are rewarded way, way beyond the best efforts of the average person, society as a whole is impoverished. Ironically, who can afford anymore to go to the stadium to watch “America’s game”? This American way of squandering resources is unsustainable and untenable, yet it’s endemic and epidemic.

We need to put the “we” back in society and start using more of our tremendous resources for the group, not the few individuals who stand on the group’s shoulders. (That’s the real Ponzi scheme, Gov. Perry.) We can begin this with the tax system, where graduated rates (not unjust flat rates) up to 50 percent or higher need to be implemented so that more of that “squandered” money returns to the “fans” who actually generate it and desperately need it.

Revising the tax system by itself will not solve the country’s economic woes. But let’s be honest: A $122-million pitcher, taxed at 75 percent, would still be a multimillionaire — part of the infamous top 1 percent — yet the added tax revenue would make the country almost $100 million richer in infrastructure, education and social services. Doesn’t that sound more like a Great Society?

-- John Delaney,
Pennington

I’ll defend battlefield’s hallowed ground

Protecting and preserving the assets of New Jersey must concern all of us. If I do not stand up, raise my voice and say, “No more!” how can I criticize others for standing by as our past is destroyed or desecrated?

I recently joined an energetic nonprofit organization, the Princeton Battlefield Society, as a member and a trustee. By getting involved and being responsible to the group’s mission, I had to learn as much as I could, which involved talking with historians, preservationists and re-enactors. One issue that continually surfaced in our discussions was protecting the battlefield site and the potential destruction of a part of it with construction of new Institute for Advanced Study housing.

Overwhelming evidence suggests that on this land, a turning point in our revolutionary struggle occurred. It should be protected as such. Construction on the site will destroy New Jersey and American heritage — my heritage. Is the proposed IAS housing so important that we should lose forever the land on which American history was made?

As a Civil War historian, I have witnessed the desecration of sites of major battles. Lost forever, their tragic drama remains; lost sites are only memories today because people like me did not raise our voices in opposition. I am committed, therefore, to remain silent no longer when similar challenges to my heritage occur.

I am against the construction of IAS housing on land that must be protected for our past, our present and our future. My opposition rests on historic fact and my personal commitment. Simply put, I say: “No more!”

-- Bill Marsch
Princeton Township

Marriage issues are being confused

I write in reply to the letter “Meaning of marriage remains timeless” (Nov. 10), written by the pastor of a church. Homosexuals are not asking for religious acceptance; they are asking for equal legal recognition and its corresponding rights. Every churchgoer knows his or her religion’s view on homosexuality, which has already been etched in stone, and thus we should not even consider debating this religious non-issue.

I disagree with the writer’s black-and-white definition of marriage. The Merriam Webster dictionary notes as its second definition of marriage: “the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage (same-sex marriage).” Matrimony is “the act or state of being married.”

The letter writer states that a new word is needed for this “confused time” we are in. I beg to differ. One in two heterosexual marriages ends in divorce, many people are having children and coexisting under one roof but aren’t getting married, many women are having children by one or more partners and don’t live with a mate, children are being abused and mistreated by trusted people in authority, etc. It is clear that there are many more issues to address that are more important and have more serious consequences than the one for which the letter writer is devoting time and angst.

If homosexual partners want the same legal rights as heterosexual partners, it is not for any church to deny them — it is for the legal system to decide. At least homosexual partners are stepping up to their responsibility, which is more than I can say for many heterosexuals.